AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN CHINA

The Reform Process (Post-1978) For the Agricultural Sector in China

The Reform Process (Post-1978) For the Agricultural Sector in China

Introduction

This essay is based on the critical evaluate of the reform process (post-1978) for the agricultural sector in China. In December 1978, the Chinese Communist Party at its Third Se- the Whole of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party and introduced a series of economic reforms to carry out the modernizations of the country in the sectors of Agriculture, Industry, Science, Technology and Defence. These reforms have gone through four major stages. From 1978-1984, it is considered the initial phase of the revolutionary process in which Gross Domestic Product (GDP) got doubled in the first 10 years of implementation. This phase solve the basic problem of feeding and clothing the people (Gollin, 2010).

China is a large agricultural country and agriculture holds an important position in the development of the national economy. After more than twenty years of reform and development, agriculture and rural economy in China have reached a new stage of development. The agricultural sector in China focuses on the relationship between supply and demand for agricultural products which has had substantial changes, more than a third of the labour force field has shifted to non-agricultural sectors, about half of the income of the farmers comes from these sectors, rural development depends increasingly on the cities and towns and the national economy etc. The Chinese agriculture becomes more and more linked to world agriculture due to these reforms, and the contents of agricultural and rural development have undergone major changes (Lin, 1992).

Based on this understanding, the new round of rural reform in China will focus on the creation of the system closely related to rural development that will focus on solving prominent problems in the development process of agriculture and rural economy in order to boost the flow of production elements to the agro resources, mobilize the initiative of farmers and accelerate the coordinated economic and social development between urban and rural areas.

China is a large agricultural country; hence agriculture is a major problem with respect to the national economy and people's livelihood. Since 1978, China has introduced the first reform in the country to abolish the previous system of people's communes. In 1950, the system of people's commune's effort was promoted in Chinese agriculture as an important component of socialism, but was abolished after the reform and opening up initiated in 1978. As a large agricultural country, China's investment in agriculture has always occupied a high proportion of fiscal expenditure of the Central Government (Carter, 2003).

Discussion and Analysis

The future of China is inseparable from the transformation of its rural and agricultural world. In the past, agriculture has sustained economic growth in other sectors. However, with the passing time, Chinese agricultural models after 1978 face several limits in terms of environmental constraints, weakness and inequality rural incomes, increasing social tensions, limited rural consumption etc. In rural areas, the aim of agricultural sector reforms was the regulation ...